Spring has sprung four years later and Copper loves it!

Spring

Will it ever happen???

Learning Curve

Two accomplishments that please me to no end:  having my forced bulbs all come up this spring and making a new banner today for my blog.  The first was easy---plop dirt in pot, plop bulbs in dirt.  The second was a little more tedious---have a gazillion tabs open and do everything over at least twice.

Big Decision

Last night the Pilot helped me box up all my sewing and painting and mixed-media.  Time to get on with the novel.  No more lollygagging about, doing this or that according to mood.  I can't have anything in sight because I'm so weak and easily tempted.  So, drastic measures were necessary. 

Don Quixote

I've started reading DQ and am thoroughly enjoying it.  I'm reading the Tobias Smollett translation this time, and, I have to say, even though it's at least twice as long, I'm enjoying it more than the Walter Starkie version.  I see the humor so much clearer.

Good Grief!

OK, apparently everyone and his brother knew about Goodreads except me.  My excuse is that I am a recovering Luddite.  But I love reading and have found several "clubs" online that are reading the "classics."  Besides a few groups on Goodreads, there are The Classics Club, an online group for monitoring  your reading list, and A Classic Case of Madness, a group of women reading through the lists in The Well-Educated Mind by Susan Wise Bauer at. I bought this book way back when it first came out and was so excited about it.  I started the reading and a notebook, but petered out because I didn't have a reading buddy (which Bauer recommends).  I wasn't online, and no one in my life was interested.  My reading of late has been very chaotic, so while looking online in search of structure, I found these groups.  The WEM group is about halfway through the novel list.  I have read a lot of the novels on the list, but it's been a while, and I want to reread some of them. OK, it's the Sheldon (of The Big Bang Theory) in me that can't just jump in the middle, so I am going to start with Don Quixote this week. To see the books I'm reading you can click here or in the right side bar click on  "'To Be Read'' under the "Pages" heading.

Flora Bowley

I took Flora Bowley's e-course last February.  I've signed up again so that I can absorb more of her free spirit.  The two paintings above are in their beginning stages.  Her process has many layers and it's so fun to compare the before and after of a painting. 

Happy New Year

from the the Pilot's Santa pumpkin (he's a little mad that he's still around).

Not Linear, Circular

The Pilot found this fallen branch while walking Copper.  He was impressed with the different colors of the three leaves---green, red, and brown.  Three stages of transformation on one branch.  Kind of like how we grow---some parts moving forward, some taking a step back, some staying the same.  The longer I live, the more I realize that life is not linear, it's circular.

In other news, I'm taking an e-class over at Chickadee Road on maintaining a "practice."  I hope to make this blog into a frequent practice. 

Springtime yard

I've got tulips, daffodils, and grape hyacinths blooming all around the yard, but what amazes me are the wildflowers in the yard. Amongst the usual suspects (dandelions and hens and chicks) these violets are really putting on a show. I get the purple ones every year, but the white with purple flecks are new to me. They showed up in a side yard a few days ago, and they make a nice display on the kitchen windowsill.

Color Amongst the Brown

On my daily walk I found this piece of birch bark. The photo doesn't do it justice---soft pinks and greens with a little yellow. Lovely to see in a world of brown and grey. This is the unsnowiest winter in my 5 years here in Chicagoland. (I love making up words).

The Sketchbook Project

I have joined The Sketchbook Challenge this year. January's theme is doodling. Here are two of my recent doodles.

Mom, Mandalas and Mid-life Crisis

Soon after I wrote that last post I learned my mom's lymphoma had come back. The ground beneath me shifted and time became slanted. The Big C has a way of interfering with life as anyone who's had it or had a loved one with it can attest to. All was altered. No routine, no art, no reading, certainly no writing. Just trips to Virginia and mandalas, lots of mandalas. I had never drawn mandalas before, but one day I just got out my pen and drew. And drew and drew and drew. Two sketchbooks full of mandalas. Obsession would be a good description. That and prayer helped me through a rough time. Mom has now been clear for over a year(praise God), but, meantime, I had to have a crisis about what to do with my life. After homeschooling for years, both of my children are in school. So lots of time to write, paint, and sew. But, no, I had to angst over everything a billion times. I think I've got it figured out, at least for the time being. Glad to be back to this blog.

Pheasant's Eye

Probably one of the most exciting aspects of gardening for me is to plant a brown, roundish, hard clump in the ground in the Fall and several months later---after freezing temps and lots of snow---this appears. Absolutely amazing. Thank-you God.

Counting My Blessings

A while ago I came across a "stitchalong" hosted by Amy at Inspire co. She was working on an embroidery sampler she called 39 Squares to celebrate her 39th birthday. I just had to make one also, so I rushed out and bought the supplies and started outlining my one inch squares. Amy is now working on a sampler called Counting My Blessings , over here, that is composed of 100 squares! I'm not sure if I'll get that many squares, but I know I have that many blessings (and more) in my life. I love the look of these squares just waiting to be filled in!

Everyday Adventures Class

I haven't scrapbooked since my children were little, but I saw this class over at Big Picture Scrapbooking and I just had to take it. It's called Everyday Adventures and is following Keri Smith's book How To Be an Explorer of the World.

Like all her books this one is a lot of fun. These are some of my "field notes."

I've enjoyed incorporating photos into my journaling---not something I usually do.

Cats Rule

For some reason these two seem to think the exact center of my desk is a great place for resting. And when I try to tell them otherwise, they just look at me like I'm speaking a foreign language.

Journaling and Rippling

Rather obsessed with art journaling lately. Taking an e-class with Hope at Besottment. I just love her style.

Hard at work rippling away. Busy has claimed this for her bed---thankfully it's a twin!

Garden Journal

Today I worked on updating my garden journal. Just looking through it brought high hopes for this year's garden. Thinking of putting in another square foot garden. More snaps! More dahlias! I've never had dahlias grow so well as last years did. I overwintered them in the garage---hope they come back. That's what gardening is all about isn't it---hope.

Poetry Journal

I don't have a picture to post of my poetry journal because I haven't "decorated" it yet. But I am enjoying using it. I've filled it with exercises from The Artistic Mother book and another book I'm reading---The Discovery Of Poetry by Frances Mayes. She wrote Under the Tuscan Sun and other memoirs about Italy. Her poetry "manual" is insightful and full of good poems. After reading a couple of poems by James Wright in it, I am curious to look for a book by him. I've also just reread American Primative by Mary Oliver. It's been wonderful to get immersed in poetry again. I've kept notebooks filled with favorite poems before but this area of my life had slidden to the back burner. Slidden is not a word, but I think it should be. Maybe I'll use it in a poem!